Personalisation is one of the big customer experience trends, across all industries. One company that achieved personalisation success, before this trend came in, was Lush.
Lush is a handmade cosmetics brand with a lot to say. They started by creating and supplying cosmetics to the Body Shop, then later began creating more natural cosmetics that they would sell from their small shop in Poole, Dorset. After building the business up, they began expanding the business around the world, until they currently stand at around 900 shops in around 49 countries. (Lush Australia) [1]
Personalisation is a key factor in their success, allowing them to gain a healthy revenue of £454 million in 2014.
They have many different methods of personalisation, from donating to specific charities and keeping their original shop in Poole open to putting the maker of a product on the packaging. [2]
The label, although it may be small and simple, allows me to have a more personal connection to the product. It is not simply mass-produced, it is a personal and handmade product which almost seems like a gift from Marwan to me. It also builds on the company's concept of keeping a "small business feel" to their products, whilst being a multinational company. The picture that accompanies the name further strengthens the personal feeling that the customer experiences when receiving or buying the product.
The company is also very good at understanding its audience, which is generally made up of millennials. They market their products in different ways to males and females as well. They use packaging which has fun fonts and tongue-in-cheek idioms. Their packaging is also not overly complex and gives the necessary information in the most clearest way.
The company has a consistent level of personalisation across the entire brand and all of its products, which means that wherever a customer buys a product, they know they will still get that personal touch Lush is known for.
Lessons can be learned from the way that they operate. The lessons that I drew from Lush are:
Personalisation can be simple and small
Humans need to play a big part of your brand
Identify your exact audiences and market your brand in a manner which best suits them
Apply the same personalisation features across the brand, nationally or globally, making the necessary changes to fit the environment of operation
Have a brand presence in the public eye
Lush is just one company that does personalisation well and has the results to show for it. They truly understand their consumers and know how to brand their company across all channels to make an impact.
I may have spoken about a handmade cosmetics company but it just goes to show you can gain inspiration from the most unlikeliest of places!
References
[1] https://www.lush.com.au/shop/info/4/about
[2] http://www.lushusa.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Lush-Site/en_US/Blog-Posts?cid=Article_new-labels